All posts tagged PonoMusic

After Neil Young recorded solo renditions of the 10 songs on his new album “Storytone,” he recorded them all again with live accompaniment from an orchestra and a big band. Speakeasy today premieres a video of Young singing “Tumbleweed” in the studio, alongside a 60-piece orchestra.

“Storytone” follows “A Letter Home,” a collection of cover tunes Young recorded with Jack White and released on Record Store Day in April. They’re the latest albums in a storied career that has included dozens of releases on his own, with backing band Crazy Horse and as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He’s also behind the new digital music service Pono, wrote the 2012 memoir “Waging Heavy Peace” and has nurtured a fondness for model trains and electric cars.

After successfully raising Kickstarter funds for his digital music delivery system PonoMusic earlier this year, Neil Young is now putting his crowdfunding muscle behind a new cause: saving the rainforests. “Climate change is the defining issue of the 21st century,” he said in a video posted by the Rainforest Connection, the group he’s teaming up with.

The two are seeking to raise funds to develop and deploy recycled cell phones into Indonesia, Africa and the Amazon – the reused hardware are stashed into trees and turned into real-time monitoring devices that detect the sounds of chainsaws and poachers using guns, then sending signals to authorities.

“This technology enables the forest to talk to the world,” Young said. “When the forest is threatened, the forest can speak.” Along with acting as an ecological big brother, the devices will let everyday users stream live sounds of the rainforest, straight from the trees. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.